Do What You Love.

Good Morning Kittens!! How is your day going so far? How is your week going? I think I may be able to see a glimpse of my life coming back to me....LOL! The past two weeks after returning from BlogHer (well almost two weeks) have been overwhelmingly jam packed. The transition after resigning has kept me a lot busier than I thought and let's just say I haven't had any time to sit down and chill yet....but I'm catching up. I've made SO much progress toward cutting out the "what's not working" in my life to make room for "what I want" in my life. You all know about me resigning my "day job" so I could pursue my dream of working on my own with FitFluential, a vision I've had since I started blogging in late 2007.....I'm also selling this blasted condo.....for those of you that have read my blog for a while you know, I have a beautiful home, but my time here has been AWFUL because of horrid neighbors. HORRID. Add to that, an absymal real estate market and it makes NO sense for me to pay almost $2K a month for a place that makes me miserable. DONE! And last week I had to get a new car- I've been traveling so much for work I didn't even have time to turn my old car- my parents had to do it for me.

That's madness. That kind of existance is madness. When I finally SAW that-- the picture of my LIFE, I didn't like what I was seeing. All work- too much stress-- not enough down time and not enough time for my passion which is improving my health and well-being. Enough.

I saw this on Pinterest (the new crack) yesterday and it shows part of what I've been missing. Just quality down time with amazing people. All I've done the past two years is WORK and travel as if I have no home. I've spent more time in limos, airports, hotels and cabs than I ever want to again and I missed a lot. 

DO WHAT YOU LOVE. 

We've all heard that, right. But guess what, so many of us don't. We settle into routines or doing what is "expected" of us.....for fear of disappointing others or ourselves, for fear of failure, for fear of many things. 

MOST OF WHAT YOU FEAR AND WORRY ABOUT NEVER COMES TO FRUITION. BUT-- ALL OF WHAT YOU DON'T DO OR DON'T PURSUE WILL NOT COME TO FRUITION. 

That picture of Cathe Friedrich above is awesome. I remember when I was married that my husband would come downstairs when I was working out and tell me "not to lift too heavy so I don't get too buff". And you know what? I LISTENED!! I couldn't imagine EVER letting HIM down, I had to be the perfect wife and be exactly what HE wanted. Guess how that worked out? He cheated on me and ended up leaving me for Miss Redneck America! 

Guess what? I love muscle. I admire women that compete in Figure. (I am not going to compete but I admire them.) I'm building MY best body for ME, for how I want to look and feel and function. Not to try to please someone else. DO WHAT YOU LOVE.

I like to run. But I discovered that I don't necessarily like to run when I 'have to' run, like in training for a 1/2 marathon. I want to just RUN. So I am doing what I LOVE not what my BFF's are doing. 

I LOVE YOGA. I love it more every time I do it. I tried it years ago and it didn't invade my body and soul like it is now. I'm doing it NOW because I'm addicted and it's changing me. Not because it's cool or because Madonna does it. ;-)

DO WHAT YOU LOVE.

Pick your workouts based on what excites and inspires YOU not others. Compete with yourself, other than friendly fun competition with others. Get excited about YOUR daily strength improvements and endurance, not about what the scale says. 

If you aren't LOVING what you do for work, why are you staying? "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results" or, if you keep doing what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten. (probably poor grammar, Danielle?) Do you think that one day you will walk in your office and magically you'll be paid double and have less responsibilities and less stress? Doubtful. 

Don't get me wrong.....going out on your own isn't easy. There is a big difference between taking a RISK and taking a CALCULATED RISK. I took a big calculated risk in resigning my job to pursue my business. I do NOT have six figures in the bank to just casually dream about making my vision a reality. It's time for me to HUSTLE but guess what-- now I'm doing what I LOVE LOVE LOVE and so the hustle is a bit more glorious. And the reward is going to be so worth it. You all recall me sharing a little video from my BFF Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) a year or two ago-- he inspired me and got this buzz in my head going- take a peek at this video (please note, if swear words bother you, this would be rated PG-13)

LOVE this man. 

Below is my ramble-on-a-thon from yesterday. I'll be shooting another vlog later today. Yesterday I went to Hot Yoga (um, so addicted) and today I'm doing my new Physique 57 DVD. Whoa. I previewed it and it looks KILLER!!

I gotta tell you kids. I'm dang excited about the future, personally and professionally. I'm changing my life. 

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What is your plan? Do you want to "just get through the day" or do you want to go to bed psyched as heck about what you "get to do" the next day??

No Limits.

Hello my kittens. I am truly sorry for being that MIA blogger this weekend--- needless to say, it was VERY busy at the FitBloggin conference. Kudos to Roni for a wonderful experience, and I encourage all of you to try and make it next year. We had some non-stop activity from the time I arrived on Thursday, until leaving early this morning. I am a wee-bit tired, but still, very happy from the experience. 

Let me tell you one of the HIGHLIGHTS of the weekend was getting to, drumroll please, meet CATHE!! OMG!! Hello- take a peek to the right of my blog at how many tags refer to a Cathe workout. I have been a massive fan of this woman and her amazing workouts for YEARS AND YEARS!! When I saw that she'd be there I was like OMG in a big way. Then when I went into the expo room and saw her, I just about started foaming at the mouth. Funny thing is, I don't get all goo-goo-ga-ga over celebrities if I meet them. I simply couldn't stop gushing to Cathe when I met her #1) because of her awesomeness and #2) because now I can help the world know about her greatness and kick butt workouts!! Without giving anything away, let's just say, you'll be seeing a whole lot more of this Super Bada** Chick in the world of KO:

I'm also going to tell you all that she is even more adorable in person than on video, if that's possible. 

Ahhhh. 

So--- the weekend was busy and I sat in on some great sessions before speaking on a panel with Andrea Metcalf, (@andreametcalf), Liz Neporent (@lizzyfit), and Karla Walsh (@karla522). That was a whole ton of fun, I must say. 

Now that I am home and getting ready for a new week of busy-ness, I found myself today doing a little bit of my old behavior- bad thought patterns. I started mentally bashing myself because I didn't get my workouts in -- while I was at a dang FITNESS conference hello! And I started freaking out at how I put myself BACK THREE STEPS by "wasting" three days. Then, thank heavens, I realized what I was doing. I stopped. I had that inner conversation with myself to realize that every day is part of the process.....and we will "fall down" but it's the getting back up that matters. If we fall down and stay down, that's the failure.

The only way to fail is to quit.

I'm realizing HOW IMPORTANT it is for me to make these changes in my life every day....because as I have more and more "A-HA!" moments and SEE things with objective clarity, I realize how destructive some of my thought patterns and attitudes were. I've told you kids before, that if you would have asked me 5 years ago if I'd be reading the type of "Self-Help" or "analyze your life" books that I'm reading now, I would have laughed and said no way....but so many of these books, coupled with some HUGE moments of clarity earlier this year-- have helped me make some BIG changes in my attitude. I'm becoming less stressed. Anxiety is not part of my daily diet. I'm LIVING my life again instead of putting everything off until the day I am perfect. I am truly beginning to ENJOY my fitness journey again, after "The Bracket Years" where I went crazy trying to 'fix' my body overnight. 

I am repeating this mantra daily, because it is so true. I've talked about how, in the past, I've made mountains out of molehills and it has gotten in my way. I wouldn't do a workout because I thought "OMG no way I have time for a 90 minute workout PLUS a shower PLUS doing my hair PLUS getting dressed and being on time....", or I'd mentally beat myself up because I either missed a workout or had dinner late with a client and had a martini or dessert that wasn't planned and thus I'D FAILED AND RUINED EVERYTHING and thus I WOULD NEVER REACH MY GOAL. 

This is not true. But that WAS my truth, my reality for a long time. 

I'm learning to TRUST MYSELF again. I'm learning to have FAITH IN MYSELF again. I'm finally TRULY believing that I can do it, instead of turning to everyone for some new fast solution to fix me and make me perfect. I'm figuring out WHY I have some messed up feelings...and as I'm getting to the core of that, it's helping me make REAL CHANGES instead of focusing on practices based on PUNISHMENT and DENIAL. That's no way to live. 

Amen. That's what I'm doing this year. The past is just that- OVER AND DONE. My life is now, and so is yours. And, there are  NO LIMITS to what I can accomplish. 

QUESTION OF THE DAY: WHAT IS HOLDING YOU BACK FROM DOING WHAT YOU REALLY WANT? And how are you gonna change that?